Carter Hopkins
Sales
Recruiting
Early Stage
Every year, I hear the same thing from founders, leaders, and investors:
“Hiring feels harder than it should.”
What changed in 2025 is not that companies slowed hiring.
It’s that leaders raised their standards.
Since starting Pursuit, we’ve had a front-row seat to sales and GTM hiring across the country. Across industries, regions, and stages of growth, the pressure is the same: profit matters now more than ever.
For a long time, that insight has lived in conversations, whiteboards, and in-depth calls with founders and sales leaders. This year, we decided to do something different.
Today, we’re releasing the first-ever Pursuit Sales & GTM Talent Index | 2025.
This index is built from 1,400+ sales and GTM searches Pursuit conducted across the U.S. in 2025. Not surveys or opinions, but real hiring behavior and outcomes.
Here are 3 signals that stood out immediately⬇️
In 2025, companies attracted more candidates than ever, but decision-making also became harder than ever. (maybe edit?)
Hiring processes slowed down with more interviews, steps, and slower closes.
Not because of indecision, but to allow more intentional hiring decisions.
As the cost of a bad hire continues to rise, ramp time, culture fit, and execution matter more than ever. Leaders slowed down not because they were stuck, but because they were being intentional.
If your hiring process feels heavier, that’s not a failure.
It’s a reflection of raised expectations.
One of the biggest misconceptions in hiring is believing the applicant pool represents the market. It doesn’t.
Many of the strongest hires we saw in 2025 never applied to a role. They were found, recruited, and engaged through targeted outreach and trusted relationships.
Job boards show availability rather than quality, and the gap between those two continues to rise.
Proven, industry-aligned talent moved through the hiring process faster than high-upside profiles. In a tighter revenue environment, leaders leaned toward certainty. Candidates who had already sold into the same buyers, navigated the same cycles, and lived in the same problems had a clear edge.
This doesn’t mean growth potential no longer matters.
It means ramp time and relevance moved to the front of the line.
If you’re building a sales or GTM team in 2026, this matters.
These are just 3 of the 10 signals we break down in the full index, along with regional insights and emerging shifts that will shape hiring decisions in 2026.
We built this index for founders, leaders, and investors who don’t want fluff.
They want clarity to help them make better hiring decisions.
If that’s you, I encourage you to download the full report below.
👉 Download: The Pursuit Sales & GTM Talent Index | 2025
This marks the first edition of what we will publish annually.
Our goal is to reflect real hiring behavior in the market and give leaders a clearer view of how hiring dynamics are evolving.
We want to help leaders build GTM teams that actually perform.
Based on 1,400+ real sales and GTM searches, the 2025 Pursuit Sales & GTM Talent Index shows leaders hiring more intentionally, relying less on applicants, and prioritizing proven execution as ramp time and risk matter more heading into 2026.
